Checks, traveler's checks, and money orders are well known popular methods of payment in retail sales. A check is convenient for the customer to access available funds without carrying cash. In addition, merchants who accept checks increase their revenues because a transaction with checks do not come with the expense of a percentage of the sale going to a credit card company such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express.
However, it is well known that customers and merchants are victims of check fraud. Check fraud may be significantly reduced if the person signing the check is accurately determined to be the person authorized to do so. Unfortunately, the prior art checks all have personal information typed upon the face of the check including the name and address of the check writer and therefore this information cannot be asked of the check writer as a security measure. Accordingly, an objective of the present invention is to hide personal information from the face of the check and to replace it with a bar code that hides the information from a would be fraudulent check writer but still permits a merchant who is validating the negotiable instrument to access the information.
Bar codes have been used on checks in the prior art to store information on pre-printed checks. For example, U.S. patent application 2002/0065771A1 to Dutta discloses bar codes used to store an account number. However, this feature does not contribute to the security of the check writer but is primarily an aid in assisting commerce. It does not include the valuable information of the name of the user, the address, a telephone number, or any other personal information.
In addition, some bar codes have been placed upon checks with the same bar code as on a drivers license number as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,226 to Steiger. However, this driver's license code only provides the drivers license number, not any personal information that would be readily asked of the check writer such as their name, home address, or telephone number.
Bar codes in the prior art are either two-dimensional (2-D) or one-dimensional (1-D). U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,362 issued to Bator employs a system which uses a 2-D bar code which is printed (not pre-printed) upon a money order which includes information about the money order request, authorization code, and printed information on the money order coupon. Bator uses a technique to generate the label in accordance with the techniques disclosed in Berson U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,158. As described in Berson, a 2-D bar code can currently hold up to 1,800 characters in the area of a postage stamp and may be used to store graphic information. In contrast, 1-D bar codes hold far few characters and are used only for alphanumeric characters, namely a decimal digit or a letter. Bator teaches a method of creating a security label, however, the security label is printed after the checks are formed the money order written and includes information that could not be anticipated at the time the checks were initially printed. In summary, Bator does not solve the problems associated with check fraud identity validation at the time of writing the check. Therefore, a further objective of the present invention is to include a bar code which utilizes a two dimensional bar code which provides meaningful information to the merchant regarding the name, telephone number, address, and photo I.D. of the user.
Finally, a still further feature of the present invention is the inclusion of a bar code on the pre-printed checks which deter people from writing fraudulent checks. Bar codes are generally well known to contain information that is imperceptible to the human observer. The upper left hand corner of the check is a typical area used for personal identification information. Accordingly, a still further feature of the present invention is to effectively locate the bar code to maximize the effect upon the fraudulent check writer that personal identification information is stored within the bar code.
The method and check with fraud protection for accomplishing these and other objectives and features of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description which follows.